Bono Backs Tax Cuts, Incentives to Aid Economy

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sonny Bono on Wednesday proposed a broad program of tax cuts and tax incentives, saying the American economy “is something we have to focus on--desperately and immediately.”

Bono, the former entertainer and now mayor of Palm Springs, called for reducing the capital gains tax, reviving investment tax credits, repealing taxes on interest earned on savings accounts and expanding tax-deferred savings through individual retirement accounts.

Addressing about 400 members of the Los Angeles County Federation of Republican Women in Montebello, Bono also advocated a more vigorous crackdown on illegal immigrants.

“We’ve got to take care of our own right now,” he said.

Bono, former husband and partner of actor-singer Cher, is seeking the six-year Senate seat being relinquished by Democrat Alan Cranston. The other declared candidates for the GOP nomination in the June, 1992, primary are Rep. Tom Campbell of Stanford, a social moderate, and conservative broadcast commentator Bruce Herschensohn of Los Angeles.

Bono’s campaign biography describes him as a “progressive Republican.” In his address Wednesday, he first called himself a “mainstream” Republican, and later, “a conservative Republican, a very conservative Republican.”

His speech was a generalized recitation of supply-side and up-by-the-bootstraps economics.

Bono, 56, a native of Detroit, said his parents were Democrats, but he began to question a system wherein “anybody that makes a dollar should give it to somebody else that’s not doing anything.”

“That’s not the basis of this country,” he added. “I liked the idea that I was from the streets, but I had the opportunity to get rich if I wanted to. It was up to me. I like that and that’s what we offer everybody.”

As he is often required to do, Bono sought to dispel any perception that his candidacy is a whim.

“We need change,” he said. “I represent change.”

He implied that he has at least tacit encouragement from the White House. Bono said he met with White House political aides recently and found “they were very encouraging.”

“They were very concerned about the Republican representation from California,” he said.

Bono also said he discussed his campaign with Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas and Dole introduced him to Bill Lacy, whom Bono since has hired as his campaign manager. Lacy is a former Dole political consultant who ran George Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign in California.

As mayor, Bono said, he has helped attract business to Palm Springs by cutting bureaucratic red tape, “because a bureaucracy is a pain in the neck.”

“I deal with it (the bureaucracy) on a daily basis and so much of it is waste and so much of it is just absolutely silly,” Bono said. “I try to skirt around it as much as I can. It irritates some of my fellow council men and women, but tough. We need growth. We need people investing.”

During a question period, Bono was asked about a magazine article that identified him as a leader of the controversial Church of Scientology. Bono said he had asked for a retraction, declaring, “I am not a Scientologist. I am a Roman Catholic.”

Bono said he has studied some aspects of Scientology, but is not a member of the organization.